"Last week, a major tourist thruway in Yellowstone National Park had to be shut down because the road melted. The road’s Wicked Witch of the West impression was caused by high temperatures in both the air and under the ground. Yellowstone sits atop a volcanic hotspot, and that heat helped cause the asphalt to soften and oil to well up onto the surface."
Via Seth Dixon

It makes total sense that another Central America country wants in on the canal monopoly that Panama has had for just over 100 years. As the Panama Canal grows older the ships grow bigger and one has to wonder at what point will the canal not be able to service a majority of the world's shipping. This could also bring a decrease in shipping costs as the two canals compete for traffic on the high seas. Cutting through a fresh water lake is a bit of concern as water from the sea and ocean can get into it.

The environmental concern is really the only issue I see with this project. For an extremely poor country, this could be a huge boost to its economy, infrastructure, and overall spirit. If the proper steps are taken, I feel very optimistic and happy for Nicaragua. But anytime politicians and big business are involved you always have to tread lightly. Only time will tell.

Im sure that they believe that building this canal will take the country out of its financial disaster. Even at the expense of not having clean drinking water, they must have thought about other alternatives to help the inhabitants of Nicaragua deal with the canals arrival. With the country being poor already, this has to be worth the risk to help bring the country and its people out of poverty. Hopefully this doesnt only make a few people rich and leave the rest of the country in shambles.

EnviroAtlas is a collection of interactive tools and resources that allows users to explore the many benefits people receive from nature, often referred to as ecosystem services. Key components of EnviroAtlas include the following:

A multi-scaled Interactive Map with broad scale data for the lower 48 states and fine scale data for selected communitiesThe Eco-Health Relationship Browser, which shows the linkages between ecosystems, the services they provide, and human healthEcosystem services information, GIS and analysis tools, and written resources
Via Seth Dixon

Unbelievable, tremendous resource. I wish I had this one growing up. It is a US gov site (EPA), and is for US geography. I'm betting you can search around for similar sites for other locales around the world. Great demo. Demo runs on Adobe Captivate. The demo took a little bit of time to load on a wired connection through a high speed fiber optic connection. Or skip the demo and play around with the maps. Site not all that fast. Still, it's worth waiting for if you want the data.

Mexico has an inequality problem. The uneven distribution of wealth is perhaps best illustrated by a series of images captured by photographer Oscar Ruíz in Mexico City. Produced by ad firm Publicis, the campaign seeks to to highlight the huge...

"While people often say that borders aren’t visible from space, the line between Kazakhstan and China could not be more clear in this satellite image. Acquired by the Landsat 8 satellite on September 9, 2013, the image shows northwestern China around the city of Qoqek and far eastern Kazakhstan near Lake Balqash.

The border between the two countries is defined by land-use policies. In China, land use is intense. Only 11.62 percent of China’s land is arable. Pressed by a need to produce food for 1.3 billion people, China farms just about any land that can be sustained for agriculture. Fields are dark green in contrast to the surrounding arid landscape, a sign that the agriculture is irrigated. As of 2006, about 65 percent of China’s fresh water was used for agriculture, irrigating 629,000 square kilometers (243,000 square miles) of farmland, an area slightly smaller than the state of Texas.

The story is quite different in Kazakhstan. Here, large industrial-sized farms dominate, an artifact of Soviet-era agriculture. While agriculture is an important sector in the Kazakh economy, eastern Kazakhstan is a minor growing area. Only 0.03 percent of Kazakhstan’s land is devoted to permanent agriculture, with 20,660 square kilometers being irrigated. The land along the Chinese border is minimally used, though rectangular shapes show that farming does occur in the region. Much of the agriculture in this region is rain-fed, so the fields are tan much like the surrounding natural landscape."

This photo shows what happens when a government is dedicated to developing agricultural industry. With a population so large it is critical that they capitalize on all their irritable land and there for that is why the border is so drastically different. In China they need the land to be used when it is possible.

The border between Kazakhstan and China holds stark contrasts. The Kazakh side is barren desert, with almost no agricultural or transportation system development. On the other side, agricultural plots are squished right up to the border, and an urban center sits right off of the border. When a country has a population of over a billion people, it needs to produce food for those people. China uses almost all of the land it can to grow food, and it has shelled out money in order to make desolate landscapes with little agricultural potential into productive areas. Kazakhstan has a relatively small population with little economic development, so it does not need to utilize and manipulate marginal lands in order to continue growth.

“ You’re taking a summer stroll along a nice trail when you come across a body of water. “That’s a beautiful lake,” you think to yourself. Or ... wait. Is that a beautiful ﻿pond?﻿ What's the difference between the two, anyway?”
Via Mike Busarello's Digital Storybooks

Hopefully seeing the efforts of these African countries to better their ecosystem gives the rest of the world the kick it needs to help out countries that are suffering. The countries are the ones that are hit with the worst conditions for their land, causing it to dry up due to the extreme heat and limited rainfall, the overgrazing of animals feeding of the land and contributing to the lands degradation. This Project is moving ahead nicely, with the countries establishing sustainable farms that will help food production.

By fixing the environmental factors threatening the region, these countries will see not just an improvement in their lands and biodiversity but across political and economic factors as well. It can increase crop yield which can in turn help offer stability to regions that are experiencing problems stemming from poverty in insufficient food sources. The project is promising because it is not a blanket plan across the entire region, but is tailored to fit the unique and different places found throughout the area.

I like the idea of these countries who face the same issues joining together to combat and find a solution for there problems with climate change, desertion, gentrification. I like the idea of the African continent joining arms in order to address the same issues there neighboring countries face. While Africa is always portrayed as a land ridden with war and strife with one another, this great image of all these nations uniting is a positive move towards a bright future for the continent.

I'm not even really sure what to say about this besides the fact that is very unfortunate. Well off countries send their old cargo, tanker and other large ships to poorer countries to be broken down for a lot cheaper than it costs them to have it done in their home country. Since safety doesn't take priority in countries such as Bangladesh the cost to have a ship pulled apart is a lot cheaper. These people have an extremely dangerous job, the falling steel, the gas buildup causing fires and other general unsafe working conditions lead these workers to have the potential to die every day. There job is basically to take apart a ship that was meant to be indestructible. Doing this is extremely dangerous. The problem seems to be that these people in Bangladesh need the jobs so bad that they can't so much worry about the possibility of death, as long as they get their check at the end of the week. Not only are there unsafe working conditions for these workers but the toxic chemicals that are used in the construction of these vessels are getting into the environment and creating more problems for Bangladeshi's down the road.

Ship scrapping is a very symbolic business. Desperate countries pick at the leftovers of an incredibly lucrative globalized business, scavenging what money that they can from an industry that would otherwise have nothing to do with them. Bangladesh's ship scrapping business is incredibly dangerous and the workers make an incredibly small portion of the profits. Some of the poorest people in the country take part in ship-breaking and they risk catching on fire, falling, getting crushed, or suffering in the long run from the different pollutants involved with the industry. These large ships are unable to be processed in an efficient manner, which is another reason why the hard work is left to those that absolutely have no other option.

Little government oversight into working conditions in Bangladesh attracts many companies who use the country to perform dangerous jobs for a low price. The local workers are exposed to dangerous work environments for little pay, and safety concerns are ignored and downplayed to avoid attracting attention to the situation. This lack of concern for workers also led to the collapse of a garment factory last year.

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